DOI: 10.1097/HMR.0b013e318202fde2

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Issn Print: 0361-6274

Publication Date: 2011/01/01


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Special issue of : Health Information Technology and Management in the Era of ReformHealth Care Management Review: Health Information Technology and Management in the Era of Reform

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Excerpt

Between June 2009 and July 2010, the landscape for studying and implementing health information technology (HIT) drastically changed as a result of the funds awarded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for HIT development and the recent ruling from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to award financial incentives for the "Meaningful Use" of HIT. These opportunities and environmental jolts to the health care sector (Bar-Lev & Harrison, 2006; Meyer, 1982) most likely increase the existing high anxiety amongst health care organizations adopting HIT systems (Burke & Menachemi, 2004; Lorenzi, Novak, Weiss, Gadd, & Unertl, 2008). Fewer than 50 of the more than 5,000 hospitals in the United States have fully implemented the highest category of technology, which includes full electronic medical record, interoperable capabilities to transfer medical data, data warehouse, and capabilities to perform data analytics (Li, Bahensky, Jaana, & Ward, 2008). This gap, combined with the environmental opportunities and jolts, reflects the reality facing health care administrators.
Health care administrators and managers play key roles in their organizations by being responsible for adaptation to environmental forces and making adoption decisions of HIT. They will bear responsibility for whatever success and failures will occur during this era of reform, and they will need research upon which to make critical decisions related to HIT. The health care management research community has an opportunity to influence practice. Researchers from the various management-related disciplines (e.g., economics, entrepreneurship, finance, organizational behavior, strategic management) have research findings that can contribute to achieving the health care goals of improving the capabilities of health care organizations by systematically investigating HIT. In addition, the nuances in the health care context provide a rich environment from which to develop new theory as well as extend existing theories.
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